The body in the barrel
by AleciaB
Summary: Beckett and the team are finally called out to a real murder. This is my entry into the 2014 Ficathon Entry for the hiatus. See how far I take it.


Hi Guys, I've decided to put this story in the 2014 Ficathon Entry for Castle hiatus. See how far I can progress with it. Encouragement is greatly appreciated.

**Chapter 1 – Barrel turns up **

The walk over the grass to the edge of the water way was done in silence by the team of four. They had finally received a call for a real murder case. Everything else had been falling into their lap initially and consequently had been passed on to other squads in the Precinct. Problem was, they were still involved in those cases. If this was a real murder case, Kate was going to ensure her team focussed on this one rather than limping along with the other squads with cases that weren't going anywhere.

"This one has to be a real murder." Esposito grumbled.

"From what the uniforms communicated it's a murder and right up there on Beckett's weirdo meter." Ryan replied.

Accustomed to the guys and their banter, Kate remained quiet, listened in, and slowly gazed about the scene as they approached it. What Kate did as they neared the crime scene was smear a little Vicks beneath her nostrils so she wouldn't smell the rotting flesh of the victim as she silent prayed for the victim they were about to meet. She usually didn't need help with the Vicks but Ryan had already been warned by the ME that the remains of this victim were foul. She held out the Vicks offering it to the boys, already aware Rick would refuse because he disliked the smell of it.

"It's gonna be bad." She hinted at Rick.

"I'm not taking chances," Ryan said as he produced his own small container of Vicks. He slicked a blob of it across his top lip and Esposito took Kate's and applied a generous amount of it to his top lip. The three of them glanced to Rick in disbelief that he could progress without using the Vick. Ryan sneezed three times in succession. His eyes started to water as well.

"I know," Rick replied, glancing at Ryan, "Bless you."

"Bless you." Kate echoed holding back her own sneeze.

"I really don't like the smell of Vicks either." Castle saw Kate offered the jar up once more. He waved it off so she pocketed it. Kate sneezed three times in succession like a cat.

"Bless you." Everyone offered.

"Thanks."

They continued their walk down the grassy slope to where the temporary spot lights had been set up to improve visibility in the dark parkland. Kate stopped on the footpath to take in the scene for a several moments. Pearlmutter happened to be the ME on call tonight. Kate was thankful that Lanie hadn't been on call. In fact, Espo had left her in bed asleep to join them.

Kate had been called by the Precinct as she and Rick were about to retire for the evening. She had nearly rejected the job but the uniform who had contacted her had told her it one of those sick, creepy murders she would like.

It was late, very late and thankfully a cool night which would help minimise the stench. She whipped her hand past her face to swish away the little bugs flying about her head. The little suckers tended to swarm around and fly in to the eyes. She could already smell the unmistakable stench of dead flesh, body parts even with the Vicks doing its job. Forensics were hovering around a blue plastic drum pressing masks to their faces.

"I think I might skip this one, Beckett." Rick screwed his nose up, "I can smell it from here." He noted they were about six metres from the barrel. He was also able to smell the stench of vomit coming from a nearby rubbish bin.

Kate glanced to Rick and nodded in understanding. She continued forward and greeted Dr Pearlmutter. It was a given that he wouldn't be happy about being called out to this find. "Evening, Pearlmutter."

"I've seen better, Detective." Pearlmutter glanced to the detective.

Kate widened her eyes and gave him a small nod of understanding. This was a bad find and the Vicks wasn't that effective on this occasion. She pressed a palm against her stomach in the hope it would remove the nausea quickly building up in her gut. The stench was disgustingly bad, like a massive fart cloud hanging over the entire park. They followed the ME. She sensed Rick had decided to follow. Curiosity was getting the better of him.

Rick had a hanky held over his mouth and nose but it wasn't working, "Give me the stuff please Kate." He requested pinching his nose. "This is really foul. Like a big dog fart."

The boys chuckled and Rick grinned then closed his mouth when he realised he could also taste it. He spat saliva to the ground making noises of disgust. Kate glanced over her left shoulder at Rick with a mixed expression of _that was gross_ and _I told you so _but said nothing as she found the container in her pocket she then handed to him.

They followed Pearlmutter to one of the blue drums, glancing at the rest of them all opened and standing. There must have been about twelve barrels scattered over the grassed bank. They cautiously peered inside the drum of interest to view its contents. What they found was a drum full of thick dark fluid that had once been a body.

"Geezus." Esposito muttered. Ryan covered his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his sweater, squinting his eyes that watered.

Kate maintained a sober expression, the whole time the three men carried on about the state of what they saw. She glanced at Pearlmutter who held the same look as her, but he was far less tolerant of the men's behaviour than she was, "How long has that been inside that barrel?"

Perlmutter's face altered to exhibit the exasperation he experienced as a medical examiner unable to determine cause of death or time of death, "I've got no idea, Detective. Whoever this was, he or she as been in her at least a couple of years, not taking into account any chemical compound that was dropped in the barrel with the corpse to exacerbate deterioration of the body." Pearlmutter shrugged, "It might not even be human."

Kate pulled a face of disgust this time with the boys, all of them glancing to each other, "Identification, if it was a human?"

"I will have to take the barrel back to the morgue and examine what it in it first, to see what it is."

"I feel like I've dumped into the middle of the set of Bones." Rick commented as he dared himself to take another look. "Oh shit, it's virtually soup."

"Thanks for that visual, Castle." Kate scorned.

He mouthed the word sorry to her and she rolled her eyes in response. She noted that Esposito and Ryan had rapidly shot off to ask the uniforms where the barrels had been found and any background information.

"I guess we're done here." Kate stepped away from the barrel fearful her dinner was on its way up. She followed Rick up the bank placing distance between them and barrel where they were able to inhale a few deep breaths of cleaner air. "The boys will wrap it up here and I guess we'll pick it up in the morning with what Pearlmutter learns." She said to Rick noticing he was quite distracted as usual. He had the attention span of an eight year old boy.

"Hopefully by the time we get into the Precinct the surveillance video will be available to us to see who dumped it here. There's cameras all around the place before the entry to the park."

"That's right she agreed and whoever did it thought it would be easy to dispose of the barrels. How many are there? About eight?"

"Something like that." He looked at Kate, "Feel like a snack?" Rick lifted his right arm and pointed towards the south, "There's a fantastic all night diner down a couple of blocks. I've seriously got to get this God awful taste out of my mouth."

Kate was about to scorn at him for being so ridiculous about eating after seeing what was inside the barrel, but then it occurred to her that she also had a dreadful taste on her tongue. "Yes, a drink would be good. Not so sure about food right now."

"No soup?" He couldn't resist asking.

"Castle!"

"Sorry, Hon." He laughed as he fell in beside her. In an unusual manner, he found her hand he took hold of as they walked away from the scene. For once she didn't shove him away, but firmly gripped his large fingers in hers. Her other hand unconsciously looped a strand of hair and twirled it around her fingers.

She smiled at him, "You will never grow up," she stated in amusement as he boyishly grinned at her.

He looked like the geeky teenage boy who had a date with the prom queen. "Where's the fun in that?" He replied and tugged on her hand to bring her closer to him. 


End file.
